Weight-loss drugmaker says Irish plants will 'continue to play significant role'

Eli Lilly's pharmaceutical plant in Kinsale, Co Cork. Picture: Peter P Photos

The manufacturer of the "King Kong" of weight-loss drugs has insisted it is committed to its plants in Cork and Limerick despite pressure from US president Donald Trump for pharma giants to return manufacturing to the US.

Mounjaro, which is currently being assessed for public funding in Ireland, is now one of Eli Lilly's key revenue-raising drugs.

Its active ingredient is made in Kinsale, at a plant visited by the Irish Examiner this week.

Concern has been growing in Cork about the potential impact of pressure from Mr Trump about where US companies choose to manufacture.

Patrik Jonsson, the company's executive vice president and president of Lilly International, said: “We are committed to Kinsale, our history here goes back a long way.

We’ve been investing heavily in Ireland over the last years and we are continuing to invest. So our commitment to Ireland is not a flash in the pan by any means. 

Eli Lilly also has a manufacturing site in Raheen, Limerick.

“All of our sites here will continue to play a significant role in our supply chain for medicines today and also tomorrow,” said Mr Jonsson.

The Kinsale plant makes the active ingredient in Mounjaro and this is then sent elsewhere for development. 

Ingredients for other drugs are also made at the Cork site.

In May, Mr Trump called for an end to Americans paying higher drug costs than elsewhere in the world. 

He wants the US to be given the status of “most favoured nation” in relation to drug costs and claimed he would order drug companies to reduce prices.

Details of how this would work across the many health systems in the US remain sparse.

Mr Jonsson said: “It’s not clear what it really means. We’re not necessarily advocates for the 'most favoured nation' concept, but we believe that every developed nation should pay their fair part in innovative medicines. And that is not the case.” 

Mounjaro is being assessed by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics for Ireland.

Meanwhile, a growing number of obesity experts, including here in Ireland, have predicted that obesity could become a disease of the past because of drugs like Mounjara.

“I hope so,” says Mr Jonsson, saying studies have shown the impact is “quite impressive”.

Mounjaro is being assessed by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics for Ireland.

The centre's professor Michael Barry has estimated a budget cost of €500m over five years if it is approved for weight-loss and diabetes patients.

Private patients in Ireland pay close to €300 for a month’s supply of the smallest dose currently. 

Some order from Northern Ireland instead as up to this week, prices there were much lower.

“The price in the UK was very different compared to the European average, there is no logic at all that prices in the UK should be significantly below the European average,” Mr Jonsson said.